Chatbots — How annoying can they get?

Today any service related calls (incoming and outing) be it for doctor’s office, banking, cable, electricity….. almost everything has an automated(IVR –  Interactive voice response ) experience. We often require to get past the IVR menu options and specific actions to get connected to a call center personnel. Some systems are designed well and have easy access to connect to contact center reps, like – press “0” to talk to an agent, others not very pleasant experiences. What are the fun tricks you adopt to get past these IVR gates? ** My personal favorite is to sing a song in complete out-of-tune and out-of-sync manner!**

Now consider experience with chatbots. Whether you ever interacted with a chatbot or not, imagine an online or messenger conversation with an automated system(instruction based). The results and experience would vastly vary. Similar to IVR you could end up in a endless loop with no EXIT or the chatbots could lead you down a path least useful. How to avoid any forms of spiral death zones?

One simple approach is to provide a command or menu based switch to pause bot and enter “support” mode. Inform the user of the options available for them to pause the bot. Consider the example where a business Facebook page is powered with messenger chatbot for scheduling appointments. If a user wants to submit a query, file a complaints or just reach out with questions the FB page messenger is completely useless as it is fully automated for bot experience. A quick option to pause the bot and submit the query allows the user to witness a good experience.

Compressed and full page view of Facebook messenger Menus (Mortgage Bot)

A more complex mechanism would be by maintaining the state of workflow. Mark certain repetitive patterns as “cause for concern” and automatically pause the bot and place the user in “support” mode. Present proper messaging to the user informing the bot is turned off and they can leave a note for a representative to followup.

A chat platform that supports seamless way to control LIVE CHAT + BOT switch is a real deal for the current times. Today ‘s population of consumers is split into old school vs millennials. The chat should deliver ease of use, clarity and flexibility where both sets audience is comfortable. Human interaction is irreplaceable and of utmost value. One-Size-Fits all bots could hurt business, you need customized “smart” messaging platform to deliver the best experience for consumers and agents.

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